The fearful may proclaim that Hashan delights in ruin. They might name us mad, declaring that we stand cackling over ashes and embers. How small this vision. We do not seek destruction; it merely clings to us, the perfumed smoke of Progress burning bright. If a chamber collapses, if a subject bursts, if the cobbles run slick with something that once had a name: these are not calamities. They are happy accidents, the incidental tolls laid upon us at discovery's hand.

And yet, some would reduce us to caricature, as if we were nothing more than gleeful arsonists, torches held aloft, blind to all but glorious flame. How insulting. How narrow-minded. Our endeavours stretch far beyond the simple pleasures of fire and annihilation. Permit me to correct the record and unveil the breadth of our current labours:

In this moment, researchers toil upon projects including:

P.E.A.C.E. - pursuit of that noble and elusive goal, harmony wrought from known elements and lesser known etheric forces.
Volatile Synthesis - the sublime art of courting sudden light and motion: refining unstable compounds into instruments of political expediency.
Practical Animation - the end of drudgery. Menial tasks heaped instead upon shambling, unthinking constructs.
Experimental Botany - development of new species of plant life, whose carnivorous appetites are no longer fettered by root and soil.
Alchemical Melding - the exquisite art of stitching natural and transmuted mortal parts together into something better (if less easily described).
The Fog Initiative - perhaps our most ambitious pursuit, wresting dominion over free travel from that insouciant shroud swallowing the continent.

We offer unstable funding, questionable safety, and unparalleled opportunity. Should you possess the intellect, the nerve, and the willingness to risk both body and sanity for the promise of scientific advancement, the hallowed halls of the Hashani laboratory await your citizenship applications and thoughtfully considered research proposals.


Ever Forward,
Ildiko Isariel
Laboratory Facility Supervisor

Penned by my hand on the 19th of Aeguary, in the year 986 AF.